Initial Letter

[Guadge]

I received my Halifax list of charges today. The enclosed letter read that they can't send statements, as they'd have to charge me, but in the interest of customer service, have enclosed a list ofbank charges. They were almost unreadable. It was all done in code, with no key to 'unlocking' it. It took me a couple of hours to figure out which were the charges. I hope I got it right. Has anyone else had this kind of statement sent back?

Anyway - have just sent my initial letter asking for refund, so fingers crossed...

[mas101]

It was all done in code, with no key to 'unlocking' it. It took me a couple of hours to figure out which were the charges. I hope I got it right. Has anyone else had this kind of statement sent back?

Anyway - have just sent my initial letter asking for refund, so fingers crossed...

 

I assume that what you are referring to is their Investors Account Report?

 

This takes a little bit of working out but is pretty useful once you know how to read it. Would be useful to know did they send you the full report or just the part that relates to "account charges"?

[Guadge]

In the letter I received from Halifax this morning, it reads;

"Unfortunately, an investigation of this kind would involve disproportionate effort and HBoS plc is not legally obliged to supply this information"

 

Is this true? And will it hinder my case in any way?

Thanks for your help.

[mas101]

Take a look at this thread

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2688

[Bookworm]

You can check out the codes here:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2491

 

Hope it helps.

[Bookworm]

Is this true?

 

Well, we don't really know, do we? Not any more than we really know whether it cost them £35 to bounce a d/d...

 

But I'd hasard a guess that, er... NO! However, if that's the approach they want to take, let them.

 

What happened is this: We started challenging banks about the charges and said: "Justify them."

They thought and said: "Well, it takes 2 people to deal with file/manual intervention" (or have a look at my Ikea thread for a really juicy one).

We said: "Ok, show us.2 (DPA and all that)

They thought: "Bugger". And then, they said: "Unfortunately, an investigation of this kind would involve disproportionate effort and xxxx is not legally obliged to supply this information".

 

If it gets to court, it would look really good (not) for them to say "well, we can prove manual intervention" when they could have made you go away by proving that it did cost them £35, and then you wouldn't have had an argument, and wouldn't have sued them in the 1st place...

[mas101]

"Well, it takes 2 people to deal with file/manual intervention" (or have a look at my Ikea thread for a really juicy one).

We said: "Ok, show us.2 (DPA and all that)

They thought: "Bugger". And then, they said: "Unfortunately, an investigation of this kind would involve disproportionate effort and xxxx is not legally obliged to supply this information".

 

 

Typical of the bank's....

 

say what they like but dont ask us to prove it.

 

By definition by telling us that it takes 2 people to deal with file/manual intervention, that suggests that they have already completed an analysis. Clearly this is not the case otherwise they would be jumping through hoops to tell you and to show you the evidence.

 

I would also believe that even if it did take 2 people to manually intervene, the cost of the intervention would still be peanuts. The whole process of flagging items that are unlikely to be paid is automated. It may require a real person to have the final say and to press the appropriate button to reject the payment, but chances are that in an hour they can process several hundred or even thousand of these. It would not be a dedicated person spending an inordinate amount of time on a single unpayable item. Even at say £35 per man hour for 2 people making a total cost of £70 per hour. They can probably manually reject 10 items or more per minute. How difficult can this process be. With the thousands of rejected payments every day, how long can a person actually spend reviewing an account? Actual manual intervention costs would then be less 15pence per item.

 

How many returned items does a bank have in a day? How many employees actually manually intervene and how many items each do they reject?

[Guadge]

Thanks. Have looked at that thread, and scanned letter in for your info. I'll just sit tight and see what happens then.

[Guadge]

I believe they sent me the full report. Thanks for the codes - will start analysing properly now.

[Guadge]

I know this isn't strictly to do with bank charges, but it IS the cause of almost every charge Halifax have ever charged me, and really riles me. When I pay cash into my account, it takes a week (including the weekend) to become available. That's CASH!! And a cheque takes ten days! If I pay a cheque from my business account (First Direct) into Halifax, the money leaves my account in three working days. But I cannot draw on it for seven to eight working days. Where can it go in that time????

And if a cheque I have written from my halifax a/c is presented a day before my cheque/cash has cleared, they always bounce it, hence the charges. It is impossible fo me to hold out for that long. Does anyome else find this infuriating?? Is there anything I can do? i did complain once, years ago, and was told it's because they are a building society and not a bank (!)

[Bookworm]

Yep, yep, yep.

 

In fact, that's exactly why I'm going to court. They paid out a cheque the day after it was presented, and even though I paid cash in to cover the amount the same day, they still charged me. Then their charge begat another charge, etc... you all know the story. For a £20 cheque, I am seeking recovery of £148 and counting... (they're due to add some more this week... which I will then pursue again).

[monkey_uk]

Bank seem to blame Royal Mail for the long cheque clearing time but:

 

a) different banks clear cheques in different lengths of time

b) Royal Mail's quality of service is better than it has EVER been. Why aren't cheques clearing quicker these days?!

[agamemnon]

im sure there was something on radio last year about the time it takes banks to clear a chq. it used to be 3-5 working days but most banks are now 5-10 wrk days evem though the money leaves the payers account almost straight away.

but then its all about making money 3-7 days intrest on thousands of cheques all adds up to more profit then if they can squeeze a few charges out of us as well then the banks can make several billion pounds profit per year again

[howardbrown]

When I pay cash into my account, it takes a week (including the weekend) to become available. That's CASH!!

i apologise for posting again, but where did you here it takes a week to clear cash?

 

over the counter it is instant, even on a saturday, and through the atm it is two days, which allows for the deposits to be checked.

[mas101]

It seems that the Halifax, not unlike any of the others have different rules on cheque and cash clearance.

 

In the case of cash with the Halifax, if you pay in over the counter, it is available immediately.

 

In the case of cheques, if you pay in over the counter the amount of time it takes to clear is dependant on the type of account you have. For example. If you have a current account with a Switch debit card and/or cheque book it will take 3 working days to clear and the cheque will be available on the 4th. If you have a basic account with say a Visa Delta debit card and no cheque book or Overdraft facility it will take 4 working days and the funds will be available on the 5th.

 

Seems to me that in the case of the Halifax, they are once again penalising the customers that need the money most. This of course is to boost their own profits. They can't make money out of us from overdrafts on a basic accoiunt because they dont allow them. So they withold our money for an extra day and earn interest for their own profit. There can be no other explanation. Regardless of the type of account, the time for a cheque to clear remains the same.

[natalie]

For example. If you have a current account with a Switch debit card and/or cheque book it will take 3 working days to clear and the cheque will be available on the 4th.

 

This isnt true, I have a current account but my cheques take at least 5 days to clear. With cash, if you put it in an atm it can take up to 5 days to clear.

 

Its just another [problem] they pull and get away with.

[mas101]

your right it is a [problem].

 

I dont understand why your current account takes 5 days to clear a cheque. I have a current account with Halifax and it has never taken more than 3 days. Very strange. Unless of course they have different types of current account.

[brindle]

I have a card cash account with halifax and I payed in a cheque on the 18 March and it cleared today....Thats 10 days!!

 

Its ludicrous.........

 

They take so long to clear cause the banks make interest off the cheque by delaying it....

[Che]

I have a card cash account with halifax and I payed in a cheque on the 18 March and it cleared today....Thats 10 days!!

 

Its ludicrous.........

 

They take so long to clear cause the banks make interest off the cheque by delaying it....

 

Hiya new to the board,

 

I have the same account as you and have to wait 10 days for cheques to clear and in the mean time the account becomes overdrawn and they charge me its really annoying!

[Guadge]

I have had a cash card account with Halifax since 1988, and it has always taken 10 days for a cheque to clear, and 5 working days (so a week, including weekends) for cash. When I first left school, I had a job in a hair salon, where I got paid £60 per week, and the boss used to 'pop in' to pay whenever she felt like it, usually a week after it was due! Then I'd pay my measly cheque in to the Halifax and have to wait ten days for it to clear. i remember it clearly, and the same still applies. It is quicker for me to pay the cheque into our business account, and transfer the cash into Halifax after three days. Although then it's a week, so no - not quicker. Always ten days...

[howardbrown]

going on what is fed to me from management, a cheque can be returned upto 2 weeks after it is presented for payment, the 'clearing' time for the cheque is actually a time the bank feels safe to allow you to draw on the money being transferred.

 

and for the cardcash/easycash customers.....

 

if you pay in a cheque on a friday, the first working day is the following monday, that is why the figures seem huge about the 'delay' in getting your money.

 

and why do you still think the cash takes time to 'clear'??? this only happens at the atm's

[Guadge]

I didn't know it only happened at the atms, but even so, at Nationwide, even at an atm, the cash is available immediately. You can draw it straight back out. And at other banks, it is always available the next day. Does it take a week to count then? I never paid that much in!

[henrysdad]

I have a current account with cheque book and Visa debit card. All the cheques I have paid in have been available on the fourth day - so pay in Monday and you can spend it on the Thursday.

[gothicf0rm]

im told paying in cash is available immediately at barclays too.

[blasthebank]

well i have acurrent acount and it takes 2 days for cash paid in to be avalible on my debit visa or at the ATM. Cheques take 5 working days, it becomes 10 if pay a cheque in b 4 a weekend, its all a crock of sh*t OH got another bloody charge today whoopie been robbed of another £30 what are they on for goodness sake.??